


The Luck You Made

by Lynds



Series: Luck [2]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Charles Emma and Tony are besties, Gen, HBIC Emma Frost, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt Charles, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Mentions of Tony Stark, Past Violence, Poor Charles, Poor Raven, Protective Emma Frost, Protective Tony Stark, Raven is a BAMF, Shitty Fathers Club, Sibling Love, but it's a bit beyond a G rating, child raven, the violence is NOT graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynds/pseuds/Lynds
Summary: Prequel to The Luck You're Born With.Eight year old Raven has been hiding in the wardrobe for days, and she's desperate. She needs to find out what's happened to Charles, because he wouldn't leave her - he just wouldn't. But how is she going to get to him? And what could have happened that would keep him away for so long?
Relationships: Emma Frost & Charles Xavier, Raven | Mystique & Charles Xavier
Series: Luck [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554106
Comments: 9
Kudos: 188





	The Luck You Made

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kianspo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kianspo/gifts).



> I wrote this almost immediately after I wrote The Luck You're Born With, but I've been so far behind on answering comments, and on getting my work done, that I decided I had to catch up before I uploaded anything new!! But I'm finally back on track, so I hope you enjoy finding out how Charles came to be a teenager in charge of a small child!

Charles woke in the hospital, every inch of his body hurting…

No. Only half of his body hurting. Half of his body was on fire and aching as if it had been trapped under tumbling boulders, his muscles screaming, his joints and ribs on fire. And his legs… were not there.

Charles could hear the beeping of a heart monitor, the hush of oxygen. He could hear a high-pitched moaning, a terrible, animal cry, a fearful thing, and his eyes widened, terrified, trying to find the source. The beeps picked up speed, the pained moans turned to panicked whimpers, and they were coming from him. 

There were nurses around him, there were doctors talking to him, they were trying to talk to him and couldn’t they see that he couldn’t be here? He couldn’t be injured! He had to get home, had to go to the big wardrobe in his room and tell Raven she could come out, that everything was safe. Oh God, Raven! She was going to be so afraid. She was going to think he’d abandoned her. He had to get home. He had to get home.

The world went black.

***

Raven woke up with a jolt, and froze, listening carefully. She could hear the sound of doors downstairs, and Kurt shouting at someone. And then Sharon’s voice as well. That was strange. Usually Sharon didn’t come out of her rooms.

Raven’s forehead crinkled as she thought carefully. She was hungry – starving, actually. She hadn’t felt this empty for years, when she’d been a little girl and sneaking into other people’s houses to find food. She hadn’t been this hungry since Charles had found her. Where was Charles?

She pressed her face to her arms and rested on her knees. What was she going to do? Charles had hidden her in here and told her to stay put and stay quiet. She had sneaked out two or three times to the bathroom, wearing Charles’ shape just in case someone walked into his bedroom, but she hadn’t dared go any further. Charles had told her to stay there no matter what.

He’d looked terrified. He tried to smile and pretend he was fine, but Raven could feel his fear. She could even see it. Raven was good at seeing things, she had to be. Good at seeing and hearing, so she could mimic. Charles told her she was brilliant.

She missed Charles. Where was he? 

What if he wasn’t coming back?

The cold that spread through her body at that thought brought tears to her eyes, and she leant her sharp chin on her arms, blinking out into the darkness. “Charles,” she whispered, whimpered. _Charles,_ she called, but there was no answer.

Had he left her?

She frowned and set her jaw. No. He promised. He said he’d always be there for her and she had to believe him. She was _choosing_ to believe him, because if Charles had left her then… No. He hadn’t left her.

Which meant he was in trouble. Which meant Raven was the only one who could possibly save him. She bit her lip. Charles liked to pretend he was always fine but she’d seen him crying sometimes. There were one or two times when she’d crawled into bed with him and turned into Maria from the Sound of Music because she cuddled people when they were scared. That always made Charles wipe his tears away and smile at her, and tell her she was the best sister ever. And that made her heart feel warm and tingly.

Well, that was that. It was decided. Raven _was_ the best sister ever, and that meant that nobody else could save Charles, it was down to her. She took a deep breath and let it out of her mouth in a long, thin stream, then frowned into the darkness. She wasn’t going to let _anyone_ take her big brother away from her. She’d found him. He was _hers._

She was a little dizzy as she stood up, and her knees were painfully stiff. She pushed the wardrobe door open, blinking in the sunlight, and tiptoed over to Charles’ desk. There was a piece of paper by the clock listing all the servants’ working hours, and Raven hissed in triumph when she saw that Suzy was supposed to be working in a couple of hours. She shifted into Suzy’s tall shape, patted her glossy brown hair in the mirror and enjoyed the feeling of a full stomach. It wouldn’t last for long, but Raven had played that trick many times when she was little. Turn into another person and your stomach forgot whose it really was for a bit, and when it had last had food.

She paused with her hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly like Charles did. Then she stood tall and walked out. 

Her heart was thumping hard, the way it always did when she walked openly around the corridors of the house. She knew the Markos wouldn’t be surprised to see Suzy there early – they didn’t know the servants’ working hours as well as her and Charles. She picked up a pile of sheets from outside Cain’s room as she passed, tucking it over her arm, and walked down towards the voices.

They were in the parlour. There was the clink of glass on glass, the glug of liquid. Charles looked sad when his mother drank that stuff, so Raven frowned a little too, on his behalf. 

“Why do you care?” Kurt said, almost laughing. “Honestly, you’ve never cared about anything, why the fuck do you care now?”

“His spine is _broken,_ Kurt,” Sharon snapped. Raven’s eyes widened. She wouldn’t let herself think. Just listen, don’t think. She focused on the footsteps, on the sounds of swallowing, the click of glass on the table. “You’re a fucking animal, you know that?”

“Don’t you talk to me like that,” Kurt snarled, and Raven clenched her fists tighter around the dirty sheets, waiting for the harder sounds, the slapping, the hitting. There was silence for a long time. “I didn’t mean to,” he said at last, begrudgingly. Sharon snorted. “Well, I didn’t!” Kurt said. “Little faggot… should’ve been able to stand upright from a tap like that.”

Sharon made a disgusted sound. “God,” she muttered under her breath. “He’s going to need special… considerations now, isn’t he? Ramps and… whatever.”

“I’m not having him back in this house!” Kurt said, a humourless laugh bursting from him. “That boy’s been nothing but a stain on this family for years, I knew, I fucking _knew_ he was a queer!”

“Watch your language, would you?” Sharon said. “He’s still my son.”

Raven closed her eyes, horror and pain flushing through her. It was Charles they were talking about. There had never been any question, really, had there? She’d known, she just… hoped it wasn’t. Oh God, Charles… his spine was broken. What did that mean? Would he be OK? Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them back fiercely. She had to find him. She had to help him.

“He doesn’t have to be,” said Kurt’s voice, and the sound had changed. It wasn’t so angry any more. Now it was almost gentle, in a way that made Raven’s hair stand up at the back of her neck. “You don’t have to rely on him anymore, not when he’s betrayed you like this.”

“Kurt,” she said, but she just sounded tired.

“He knows damn well that a name like his, _your family name,_ is something worth passing on to the next generation, and he chooses… this? Ungrateful little shit.”

“Jesus, Kurt, he’s still in the bloody hospital! Just… leave it, would you?”

There it was. Raven pushed herself away from the wall, walking quickly down to the laundry room and throwing Cain’s sheets in against the machine. She listened carefully. At this distance from the parlour she couldn’t hear Kurt and Sharon anymore. She took a deep breath, and shifted into Sharon Marko.

Sharon wore uncomfortable shoes and felt blurry. Raven stood for a little longer than usual, reminding her organs that she was still _her,_ and she just wanted to look like Sharon enough that she could get to Charles. She threw her head back and walked right out the front door. There was one terrifying moment when she heard Sharon’s voice, saying something snide to Kurt, and she felt like she might be physically sick. Just five more steps. Just four. She opened the great door and almost ran down the stairs, still holding her head high.

“Mrs Marko,” said Henry, popping the door open and stepping out of the great black car at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t know you were going out.”

“I’d like to go back to the hospital,” she said, biting back the please and thank you that Charles always made her say. She didn’t look at Henry as he opened the door for her, just slid in and sat, crossing her knees and looking out of the window.

She was so, so hungry. She dug her fingernails into her palm. Sharon’s stomach was almost as empty as Raven’s had been, and she wanted more than anything to look in the cabinets and fridges and pockets Charles had told her were in the back of this car, to see if she could find something to eat. But if Henry realised she wasn’t really Sharon Marko, he’d take her straight back home, or even to the police, and she’d never find Charles. The thought of losing him was so scary that it seemed to make her stomach shrink. She couldn’t fit anything in there if she tried.

The hospital was enormous. Raven stared up at the great white building when Henry opened the door for her, and for a moment of blinding panic, had no idea what to do. “If I may, Ma’am,” said Henry gently, “I’m so sorry to hear about young Mr Charles.”

Raven glanced over at Henry and nearly wept. Instead she swallowed hard and nodded. Henry gave her a sympathetic smile and gestured towards the door for her. She could have hugged him. She saved it for Charles instead.

The first room she went into was so _busy,_ so many people walking this way and that, all concentrating so hard. Raven stood just inside the entrance and felt the tears rise again, nearly despairing. How would she ever find Charles here? It was huge!

“Mrs Marko?” a voice called, and Raven turned, her eyes wide. A small woman with black hair tied back tightly in a long ponytail and a white coat walked up with her hand out, smiling. “I thought you’d left for the day. Do you remember the way up to Charles’ room?”

“I… I’m afraid not,” Raven said.

The doctor smiled at her sympathetically. “I’m on my way there now, if you’d like to join me? He woke up earlier today, we were just about to call you to let you know. We’ve put him under sedation so he’s calm, but we’re hopeful that with his family around him, he’ll be able to recover more smoothly.”

Raven couldn’t think of anything to say. She wasn’t sure she could have said anything anyway, not through the painful lump in her throat. The doctor chattered as she led her down long, twisting corridors and up to what must have been the twentieth floor in an enormous elevator. 

“Ah, here we are,” the doctor said, and pushed open one final door, gesturing to the antibacterial gel on the wall. Raven didn’t know if she used it. She stumbled in and stopped in horror at Charles’ bed. If that was even Charles. His skin was a pale waxy colour where it wasn’t covered in blotchy bruises. There were pipes in his nose, his mouth, the skin of his arms. 

Raven covered her face and sobbed. “Oh… oh my dear, I’m so sorry,” the doctor said, patting her on the shoulder. Raven wanted her Charles. She wanted to be her own blue self and snuggle up under Charles’ arm pillowing her head on his shoulder and listening to him when he read to her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t, maybe she could never again, because Charles was sick, and maybe dying, and broken, and she couldn’t do anything.

“Raven,” croaked a voice, and she opened her eyes, her breath coming too fast. Charles’ eyes were open, but just barely, fighting against everything to stay that way. He moved his hands, just the fingers opening, reaching for her, and she ran to him, clutching his hand with both of hers. “Raven,” he said, and he twitched up one side of his smile just for her.

Raven lay her head down over his hand, sat on the chair and cried.

***

“Tony’s on his way,” said Emma, picking Raven up and cuddling her close.

Charles gave a tired smile. “Why is Tony on his way?” he asked. “He doesn’t have to come out here all the way from Malibu.”

Emma gave him her patented ‘you’re so stupid’ look. “Of course he does,” she snapped. She glanced at Raven, then spoke directly into his mind. _Your monster of a stepfather threw you down the stairs and convinced your mother to disinherit you, of course Tony’s on his way!_

Tony’s got enough to deal with with his own father, Charles said, closing his eyes. _So do you, for that matter._

“Yeah, and you’ve helped both of us when we needed you too. You know Tony gave Christian a place to stay when my father… well, he’ll do the same for you.”

Charles shook his head. “I’m not leaving New York,” he said, slurring slightly. He was so _tired._ “You know how long it took me to enrol Raven in that school? We’re not leaving. I won’t have her life disrupted any more.”

“Charles,” Emma sighed. “You are sixteen! I know you think you’re the most mature person in a room at any one time, and yeah, maybe you are. But you’re not her father. You’re a child.”

Charles held out his hand to Raven, who slipped off Emma’s lap and crawled into the bed next to Charles, arranging herself carefully against him. “No, I’m not her father,” he said, smiling as he kissed her head. “I’m her brother.”

“The best brother ever,” said Raven, closing her eyes and nuzzling into his chest as she started to drift off to sleep.

Emma rolled her eyes. “Fine! God, you’re impossible.” She pulled out a notebook and started jotting down notes with a diamond studded Mont Blanc.

“What are you doing?” Charles asked.

“Making a list of everything we need to do. I’ll cover your medical bills, I’ve got access to one of my trust funds already.”

“Emma, no, you can’t!” Charles protested, his forehead crinkling. 

“Shut up. Where was I? Oh yeah - Tony knows some people who do incredible work with rehabilitation and physical therapy here, and you know he’s gonna want to make you a wheelchair with his own two hands. Oh, and you’re going to need a lawyer so we can take your family for every damn cent for what they’ve done to you.”

“Emma,” Charles said, his eyes prickling.

Emma looked at him flatly. “Don’t get all soppy on me, Xavier. You’ll stain my clothes.” She sat up and looked serious for a moment. “Honestly, Charles… this isn’t going to happen overnight. Your parents have pretty damn good lawyers of their own. I want to say it’s a sure thing but… well.”

Charles reached for her hand and she gripped it tightly. He smiled at her and for the first time since he lost the use of his legs, he felt steel in his spine once more. “Thank you,” he said.


End file.
